As of December 10, 2015, the 2015-16 Pennsylvania Budget is still not done. Two different budgets are now before the General Assembly. In this brief, we provide an overview of the differences between the two budgets, looking first at critical differences in spending for education and human services, then at the impact of those differences, and finally at some subtleties in how the two budgets organize and present certain spending choices they have in common and how this affects the bottom line budget numbers

How does hydro-fracking affect the rural communities at the epicenter of drilling activity? A rich body of literature on the human impacts and lore exists from the Mountain West: of boomtowns and bar fights, and rising rents and rising crime that accompanied oil and gas development in Wyoming and Colorado in the 1980s and 1990s, and more recently in North Dakota shale oil fields.

Considerable evidence indicates that shale development has followed a similar trajectory in Pennsylvania. Work from academic researchers and advocacy groups such as Food and Water Watch, and our own indepth examination of two high-intensity Pennsylvania drilling counties (Greene and Tioga) document increased traffic, damaged roads, rising rents, and intensified demands on police and local first responders.

The Department of Public Welfare (DPW) will end family planning coverage for almost 90,000 low income women currently enrolled in SelectPlan for Women, most of whom will be eligible for comprehensive health care coverage through Healthy Pennsylvania. Rather than ending the SelectPlan waiver, DPW should transition eligible SelectPlan enrollees into Healthy Pennsylvania and continue to offer SelectPlan as a choice for women who are not Medicaid expansion-eligible.

Learn more about the Governor's Healthy PA plan, what's at stake for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians in the ongoing debate over expanding Medicaid, and the latest on the Health Insurance Marketplace in Pennsylvania.

Beginning Tuesday, Pennsylvanians who are working but lack health insurance will be able to shop for and compare options for affordable coverage on a new competitive Health Insurance Marketplace established by the federal health care law.

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) show that Pennsylvanians have not made up for health insurance coverage lost during the Great Recession. Medicaid expansion is needed now more than ever, PBPC Director Sharon Ward said today.

“There is little to celebrate in this budget," says PBPC Director Sharon Ward. "It fails to adequately address the enormity of the funding crisis facing Pennsylvania schools. 80 percent of the cuts to classrooms are left intact, and that means higher property taxes and even larger class sizes in our schools.